Vortex Inline Fan to Cool Light

Right now I'm using 2x60 watt 5000K bulbs in reflectors and 2x13 watt 5000K bulbs in desktop lamps. I only have a single fan circulating air in my closet. Temps stay around 75-83F. My plants are 4 weeks in vegg and the smell isnt really too bad. I dont smell the plants at all before i enter my room. Once I enter the room with my closet door open, the smell is there but not too strong. Im pretty sure its goin to get pretty bad once i switch to 12/12. But by that time I'll have a 600W HPS in a grow room tent with inline fans and Odor Sok Air filter.

Here's my thoughts on this... Look at the HVAC system of any (modern) building... There are fans on the roof that pull air out of the building and "scrubber" (filters) to filter the air being drawn back into the building so it is fresh.

Well for my plants, I am putting the inline fan (on order) right before the exhaust duct (just installed) to the outside. This will pull the warm air... right before the fan I plan to put my filter so filter>fan>exhaust vent... then I have both flowering section and veg section in my room that I am dividing up but share the same air. So like a header on a car engine I am going for one duct that divides in a "Y" for one branch to go to veg and the other to flower. But the inlet ducts will be pretty much equal lengths to draw equally. So, 2 inlet ducts> "Y" coupler> 1 duct> filter> inline fan> exhaust vent. Also, all my ducting is white and not silver so it doesn't get hot.

Btw, the only way to cool a room is to pull out the warm air... My inlets are from my house which is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Disclaimer: I am legal in my state to grow.

SirTitanium said:

Seaghost, thanks for taking the time to reply. As long as you can keep your ducting organized and out of the way, yours sounds like the perfect solution. Shit, my office is 75 degrees and it's like 7 in the morning. I actually never thought of a dual system. The sound of two fans doesn't get to you? Is your cab vent fan inline or a squirrel cage (or all-in-one exhaust with activated charcoal)?

Again, thanks.

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Always glad to help Yeah after reading tons of posts on here and some other forums I figured out that if I had the space then a dual system gave me the best benefits. I got my inline fan from Amazon that was a vortex carbon filter fan combo for $150. Its fairly quiet and my cab will be sound proofed for the most part so noise from it will be minimal.

For the cool tube I got a regular 4" inline duct fan that's mounted at the back of the cab pointed up exhausting into the attic. Inline duct fans are fairly inexpensive, about $35 and mounted that way the noise is very minimal. Plus since my cab is inside my walk in closet that helps shield the noise also.

And I discovered that by using this dual system I was able to use much lower CFM fans which helps with electric and noise. Any good 4" inline duct fan will have a high enough cfm to cool up to a 600 watt HPS. Over that you need 6". Also when mounting the fans to the cab I used rubber screw mounts to help with vibration and sound isolation. Also since my setup is for scrog my light never has to move, my bottom cab does the veg, so that greatly simplifies the ducting.

HTH, if you need any more questions answered feel free to ask

Peace out

Seaghost, what are rubber screw mounts? Like rubber screws you use to silence noisy computer cases?

Medi 1 said:

fans are built to blow bot suck or draw out of a room.

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I am sorry but this is just dead wrong. Fans are built for many reasons. Squirrel cages are indeed designed for exhaust. Secondly, the reasons to suck rather than blow for cooling are obvious. If I blow air down a light cooler I am increasing the pressure in the tube making hot air leak places where I don't want it. If I suck the air I am pulling air in at the spots where I would have been creating leaks and am able to put the heat where I want it rather than in my grow or in the surrounding room.

Negative pressure is good. Sucking is almost always better.

Sucking is almost always better.

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You know, it's hard to just leave it alone.

infinitescrog said:

You want to pull the air through your light, Filter ----> Reflector -----> Fan ------> Exhaust out. The air coming out of the fan is heated by the fans motor and will add unnecessary heat. Inline fans are made to exhaust rooms.(i.e. pull air out)..dunno which fans Medi is talking about.

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I personally run filter-->fan--->cooltube---> out of the room
I have a 600 watt hps and my temps are 72 with only a passive intake from a room with 70 temp already.

Another important issue is you want your inline fan pulling air directly from your filter. What would happen if your pulling air as mentioned in this quote and there was an air leak around either end of the filter? Well then your exhausing tainted air - better to be safe

I'm a little late on this thread but here it goes from an engineer (not me just an inquiry to a mechanical engineer). It is always better to exhaust than it is to supply. The reason is.. If you push air into a room its going to force out out of the room anywhere it can.. This could infact push air out at ground level (cold air) thus being less effective than a fan that is sucking hot air from the top of the room. The exhaust fan is located and ducted. this allows you to know EXACTLY which air you are removing. In our case, the hot air from the top of the room. If you located a fan at the top or bottom of a room, it would push air out any opening it could. You would get rid of some hot air but you would also get rid of cold air. The exhaust fan will only remove the hot air.

Food for thought. I tend to agree it makes sense to me.

Also, a fan blows as much as it sucks. simple physics. You can use a fan for either purpose. adding duct work to either end of the fan will also increase the static losses in your system. Thus lowering the amount of air that fan moves. It doesn't matter if its on the suction side or the discharge side of the fan. Air in = Air out. Fans are used for both everyday in every building you've ever entered.